Systems and methods of offline processing

• US 20060004927A1
• Filed: 07/02/2004
• Published: 01/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Rehman, Samuelson, Li, Hui, Chakraborty, Anit
• Granted Patent: US 9,083,765 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/250
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context

Abstract

Systems, methodologies, media, and other embodiments associated with offline processing are described. One exemplary system embodiment can include a link detection logic configured to determine a link status of the network connection where the link status includes an online state and an offline state. An offline logic can be configured to allow the application to continue operating when the network connection is in the offline state by redirecting network communications sent from the application and storing the network communications in a post data store. The offline logic can be configured to submit the network communications from the post data store to the remote device when the link status changes to the online state.

Claims

1. A system configured to operate within a computing device where the computing device includes an application configured to communicate with a remote device using a network connection, the system comprising:

a link detection logic configured to determine a link status of the network connection where the link status includes an online state and an offline state;

an offline logic configured to allow the application to continue operating when the network connection is in the offline state by redirecting network communications sent from the application and storing the network communications in a post data store; and

the offline logic being configured to submit the network communications from the post data store to the remote device when the link status changes to the online state.

2. The system of claim 1 where the link detection logic is configured to periodically determine the link status.

3. The system of claim 1 where the offline logic is configured to submit the network communications from the post queue in a first in, first out sequence.

4. The system of claim 1 where the system is configured as processor executable instructions that execute as one or more background tasks within the computing device.

5. The system of claim 4 where the one or more background tasks include threads.

6. The system of claim 1 where the network communications are based on XForms.

7. The system of claim 1 where the network communications include one or more of:

XForms, XHTML, HTML, gif, and mime compatible communications.

8. The system of claim 1 where the network connection includes a wireless connection.

9. The system of claim 1 where the offline logic is configured to operate transparently to a user of the application.

10. The system of claim 1 where the system is embodied in a computer-readable medium and is configured as one of:

a browser, or a software plug-in for a browser.

11. A method, comprising:

receiving one or more forms from a remote device over a communication link, where the one or more forms allow data to be processed online by a user;

storing the one or more forms local to a computing device;

in response to the communication link changing from an online state to an offline state, providing a simulated online state by allowing the user to navigate the one or more forms that are stored;

in response to one or more requests to post data from the one or more forms to the remote device while the communication link is in the offline state, transparently redirecting the one or more requests and locally storing the data to be posted in a sequence; and

in response to the communication link changing from the offline state to an online state, retrieving the data to be posted based on the sequence and transmitting the data to the remote device.

12. The method of claim 11 where the step of allowing the user to navigate includes redirecting a network communication associated with a navigation request to the locally stored data.

13. The method of claim 11 further including periodically determining the status of the communication link.

14. The method of claim 11 where the step of storing the data includes storing state information for the data to be posted.

15. The method of claim 11 where the steps of retrieving and posting are performed transparent to the user.

16. The method of claim 11 where the step of transparently redirecting and storing the data is performed as a background task while allowing the user to continue accessing the one or more forms.

17. The method of claim 11 further including:

determining a page structure of the one or more forms received from the remote device; and

allowing the user to navigate through the one or more forms while in the offline state using the page structure.

18. The method of claim 11 where the step of locally storing the data is stored in the sequence based on a first in, first out sequence.

19. The method of claim 11 further including providing processing for the one or more forms being based on XHTML/XFORMS documents.

20. A computer-readable medium including processor executable instructions that are operable to perform the method of claim 11.

21. A computer-readable medium for providing processor executable instructions operable with a computing device that has established a network connectivity to a web-based application during an online session, the processor executable instructions being operable to perform a method, the method comprising:

storing, in a local data store on the computing device, one or more forms that are from the web-based application as a user navigates the web-based application;

detecting if the network connectivity is in an online state or an offline state;

if the network connectivity changes to the offline state;

intercepting data submitted by the user to the web-based application;

storing the intercepted data in a post data store; and

allowing the user to continue accessing the one or more forms from the local data store as though the data submitted by the user was successfully posted to the web-based application; and

if the network connectivity changes to the online state;

retrieving the data from the post data store; and

transmitting the data to the web-application in a predetermined sequence.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 21 including processor executable instructions configured to allow the user to navigate the one or more forms from the local data store to simulate network connectivity if the network connectivity changes to the offline state.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 where the processor executable instructions are further operable to locally process a selected page navigation operation from a form that would result in a network communication if the network connectivity were in the online state.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 21 including processor executable instructions configured to preload the one or more forms from the web-based application to the local data store.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 21 where the computer-readable medium is configured as a browser or a plug-in for a browser.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 21 including processor executable instructions configured to parse the one or more forms received from the web-based application to at least determine a page structure of each of the one or more forms.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 21 including processor executable instructions configured to process the one or more forms as one or more data types including XForms based documents, XHTML documents, HTML documents, mark-up language documents, and mime-type documents.

28. A system for an electronic device having an application that can communicate with a web-based application over a communication link, the system comprising:

means for providing offline processing of network communications sent from the electronic device including;

means for redirecting the network communications when the communication link becomes offline;

means for storing the network communications in a post data store to simulate a successful submission of data to the web-based application; and

means for submitting the network communications from the post data store to the web-based application when the communication link becomes online.

29. The system of claim 28 further including means for processing documents compatible with at least XForms.

30. The system of claim 28 further including means for detecting whether the communication link is online or offline while the application is being operated by a user.

31. The system of claim 28 where the network communications include communications that are initiated from a selection within the application.

32. The system of claim 28 where the means for submitting synchronizes a state of the application and a state of the web-based application after submitting the network communications.

33. The system of claim 28 where the system includes processor executable instructions provided by a computer-readable medium.

34. A system for an electronic device having an application that can communicate with a web-based application over a network communication link, the system comprising:

means for providing offline processing of network communications sent from the electronic device including;

means for loading, into a local data store, one or more documents from the web-based application and storing navigation properties between the one or more documents; and

means for navigating the one or more documents when the network communication link is in an offline state by redirecting network communications from the application and processing the network communications using the one of more documents from the local data store and the navigation properties.

35. The system of claim 34 where the network communications include an operation to change a current page displayed by the application where the operation is programmed to retrieve a next page from the web-based application.

36. A computer-readable medium for providing processor executable instructions operable with a client device capable of interacting with an online application using a network connection, the processor executable instructions being operable to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving one or more web pages from the online application, where the one or more web pages can include one or more page navigation functions that, when selected, cause network communications to be transmitted to the online application;

storing, in a source data store, the one or more web pages with page navigation relationships;

when the network connection changes to an offline state;

intercepting network communications associated with a selected page navigation function; and

process the selected page navigation function locally using the source data store and the page navigation relationships to determine a next page to display on the client device.

37. The computer-readable medium of claim 36 where the one or more web pages are received in a format compatible with XForms.

38. The computer-readable medium of claim 36 where the intercepting includes prohibiting the network communications from being transmitted over the network connection.

39. The computer-readable medium of claim 36 where the intercepting includes redirecting the network communications to be responded to locally by the client device.

40. The computer-readable medium of claim 36 where a page navigation function includes a function that requests the online application to change a currently displayed page to a different page.

41. The computer-readable medium of claim 36 further including determine the page navigation properties for each page of the one or more pages by analyzing attributes of each page.